28.5.09

Just finished a meeting in my Metaplace world, The Lectern, on the recent shift of Shattered World to a CC license. This is my record of the chat.

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SaraPickell: All right, well let's begin then.Pixeleen: YAY! I bought Pixeleen St in MP Central!SaraPickell: First of all, thank you to everyone for showing up. It means rather a lot to me.bionicghost: altouh i don't actually know what's going on herebionicghost: but the spirit is hereSaraPickell: Before I go into any specifics about the setting, I'd like to explain what exactly I've done, and why exactly you should care. =)KStarfire: *grumbles at people taking his street corner*chooseareality: simmer downchooseareality: :PTizzers simmers.SaraPickell: Shattered world is a setting I created a little over two years ago specifically to support the creation of an MMO. Over those two years it has grown and expanded somewhat.SaraPickell: I am now releasing all of that writing, all of the design work for the MMO, as well as all of the IP that would normally be part of a license free to everyone.chooseareality: KS or someone can you grab a log of this for me please :)KStarfire: if i dont crash sure :)chooseareality: I should have been offline 15 minutes agochooseareality: poofKStarfire: go brooke.. :)Pixeleen: what sort of license are you releasing it under?SaraPickell: Not only free to use, but free to copy, free to profit from, and free to modify. The only rule being that I be credited, and that you maintain that right for everyone else.Tizzers: Creative commons license?SaraPickell: It's a Creative Commons Share and Share-Alikebionicghost: point for tizzlesTizzers: <3Pixeleen: why did you decide to do a creative commons license?SaraPickell: Well, I was watching the commentary on a Jackie Chan movie once, and it was mentioned the character he was playing was the star character of a great many movies in Hong Kong Cinema. Since then, I've alsways been interested in the idea of a shared culture that doesn't also try to limit people's abiliSaraPickell: *ability to profit from it.Pixeleen: where is the work available? is there a URL?SaraPickell: For the moment it's still spread out a bit over two sites. I'm going to be working to compile it all into a PDF soon. Let me grab those two urls for you.Pixeleen: thanksSaraPickell: http://soagcure.blogspot.com/search/label/Shattered%20World || http://swmmp.wikidot.com/Omnifrog: AwesomeKStarfire: very well put together SaraOmnifrog: I'm a big supporter of CCPixeleen: I know someone who will say that this is communism or socialism and destroys businessbionicghost: let's... not tell that person about itOmnifrog: thats wonderful SaraSaraPickell: Actually, it's opportunity cost, right now I'm loosing more money on the IP than I'm making because without mind share it remains worthless.Pixeleen: so this is a way to get more mindshareSaraPickell: With mindshare, although I won't be in control of all the profits made, it attains worth.SaraPickell: From a purely cynical perspective, yes.SaraPickell: However, I'm not here to attempt to force or even really sell anyone on the use of the IP. Rather, I want people to see what is there, see if it can help them with some endeavor, and if it can to use it.Omnifrog: quote "the big problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity"Tizzers: What kind of assets exist Sara? Object/Character models? Textures? SaraPickell: At present moment, there is mostly writing and design work. Some character art does exist but not as much, and a lot of it is floating around my hard drive, and will be hunted down as I compile more.Pixeleen: the world needs more models and texturesSaraPickell: However, I'm not ceasing work on the IP myself, and all future assets will be covered under the same license, so even if you don't find anythign that works for you now, that may not be the case in the future.bionicghost: wait. Everyone who modifies it will have his/her own version, or the modifica game?tions would be added to an overall bionicghost: wait. Everyone who modifies it will have his/her own version, or the modifications would be added to an overall game?*Pixeleen: if people cooperate the mods could be addedPixeleen: but then you have a governance issuePixeleen: who decides which mods go in the common game?SaraPickell: Whoever decides which game is the common one.SaraPickell: And there is nothing to say that you need work on "the" game I'm working on. You can create your own, merely using the setting.bionicghost: like a source codeSaraPickell: I suppose, I'm not starting a project, just opening up the tools I've used so far, and will create in the future for others to use.Pixeleen: its sounds pretty coolPixeleen: if you can get a community sharing things will move faster than if you try to do it all yourselfSaraPickell: exactly.bionicghost: A game of manySaraPickell: or many games/stories/movies from many.bionicghost: A many of many =PSaraPickell: So have I explained that to everyone's satisfaction so far?Pixeleen: yesSaraPickell: Then I would like to continue to a quick overview of what I hope will wind up in the eventual "Source Book".bionicghost: me/ sips on coffeebionicghost sips oon coffeeSaraPickell: I'm a very character driven person, so I'll be starting it with a list of characters, as well as a timeline and connection graph so you can get a feel for who I have worked on so far.SaraPickell: wow, that is a lot more boring than I thought it would sound.bionicghost: uhmmmmbionicghost: WOOHOOO!!!SaraPickell: So I'll put it to you, would rather hear me give an inventory of the book, tell you about parts of the setting and design I find interesting, or should we skip strait to questions.bionicghost: i say first optionOmnifrog: please go onbionicghost: i will show my exitement by throwing a tomatoe at omnifrogOmnifrog: lolSaraPickell: Okay, then continuing with the book. The second part will be about the major historical events along the timeline.Omnifrog: I'm a bit of a copyleft freak so ...SaraPickell: That will be followed by an "art" segment, which will contain concept art, as well as any sprites, and also a preview of all the art files that come with it.bionicghost: such as the ones behind youSaraPickell: Correct.SaraPickell: That will be followed by writing samples, to round out the overall setting and art portion of the book.bionicghost: Quick question: what is that on that guy's feet?SaraPickell: The man in the grey uniform?bionicghost: this guySaraPickell: Ahh, that is a very poorly rendered rock formation.bionicghost: oh thanksSaraPickell: The next segment of the book will be devoted to high level game mechanic designs.SaraPickell: Then it will be low level mechanics, these will include mathematical formulas and very low level implementation details.SaraPickell: After that will be any source code or pseudo code samples.bionicghost: The physics laws of SWtayboy: heySaraPickell: Correct.bionicghost: So, will it be a physical book?bionicghost: or an e-book?SaraPickell: It will be an e-book. Perhaps if something changes durastically and either I can afford it, or there becomes enough demand for it I would look into printing options. But for now e-book is my only realistic option.SaraPickell: So are there any more questions then, on the book and it's contents?bionicghost: uhm.. it's a buyable or a free e-book? =3SaraPickell: It'll be free.bionicghost: wootPixeleen: free is goodOmnifrog: how long has this work been under CC?SaraPickell: I put it under the license yesterday. Which is why this meeting has been largely about the choice and process and less about the IP itself.Omnifrog: there is a lot to look at but it's very cool that you chose CCbionicghost: So, if the plasma cannon's trigger is pushed for too long, it blows up in my facebionicghost: (I apologise if the question seemes a bit out of context)SaraPickell: More like the gun melts.Omnifrog: this would make a good post for boingboingbionicghost: on... my handsbionicghost: a failsafe could be added... i think we're getting out of subjectSaraPickell: I personally will be waiting until I have the source book available before I try to push this to any media outlets.Pixeleen: I think that is a god idea SaraOmnifrog: I wont submit a post at this time thanOmnifrog: Hi moe!moeshere: hey hey what can I say how all yall today moeshere: hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibionicghost: Soup moemoeshere: supSaraPickell: I suppose, I do wnat to impress however that I am not trying to "lead from the top" in this. My goal is to make this and grow this, while trying not to create undue expectations. However I'm not going to tell anyone else what they are or aren't alowed to say or do about it.moeshere: ok what did I miss who's getting shotOmnifrog: YOU!Omnifrog: hahahmoeshere: I knew itbionicghost begins tinkering with a photon cannonSaraPickell: Simply because, if you want it to be, it can be as much your project as it is mine.moeshere: KOmnifrog: thats very cool Sara but projects still need leaders even in an open environmentmoeshere: well who made the cannonbionicghost: the "leader" could be an assam... wait, what's the word in english...Omnifrog: the community will select who they follow but it's your baby moeshere: the mean boss thats what it's called hehebionicghost: assambleybionicghost: congressbionicghost: cheesecakemoeshere: ok so what does the cannon do at this point moeshere: just shot meeps rightbionicghost: http://soagcure.blogspot.com/search/label/Shattered%20Worldmoeshere: okbionicghost: http://swmmp.wikidot.com/SaraPickell: Well, I want to start winding this down, any last questions before we officially close?bionicghost: i got disconnectedbionicghost: did i missed anything?Omnifrog: It's a bit late for me to get too deep into it Sara but I will look at this all more tomorrowOmnifrog: I logged the chat textSaraPickell: Well, thank you all again for coming.Omnifrog: and I'm looking at the SF sitebionicghost: woah, we're finished already?bionicghost: dangersSaraPickell: With what I wanted to cover in the meeting. I'll still be here for a while, and will always be available through pm to answer questions.

What this means is fairly simple. The IP, as well as all of the design work for the MMO completed so far is available for people to use for whatever they want, basically. The terms are that you must attribute the IP to me, you are allowed to use it for commercial purposes, and you are allowed to change it as you wish so long as you maintain the terms of this license.

I'm going to put in some work towards getting something more along the lines of a Source Book put together to help share my underlying vision and give other creators a jump off point if they wish to join in the creation of this world. Also, while it's not required, I'm very interested in seeing where people take this, so go ahead and send me an e-mail if you pick some of it up.

Welcome to the eighth installment of the EVE Blog Banter , the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here . Check out otherEVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from me, Ga'len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility. He asks: "What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe? Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a 'nerf this, boost my game play' post like we see on the EVE forums."

So in general, when I approach a system as complicated as EVE my first thought is to keep any additions simple. Sure I could write a three page dissertation on how to work out naught dot naught sovereignty, and it may even be something workable. Unfortunately it would take insane amounts of time to build, test and rebuild until it actually worked. For in iterative process like design, in a complex system like EVE it's better, in my opinion, to keep it small with a strong but flexible core concept.

In that case, my thought would be the introduction of two new modules and eight new ships. Tech one module, tech two module, four racial tech one ships, and four racial tech two ships. There would be BPOs available for the four main ships and tech one module, and faction BPCs from each faction's logistics corp's LP stores for the tech two ships and module. BPOs would be kept sparring initially, and distributed at through the stations that the tech two BPCs are also available at.

The module would be a "Large Tractor Beam" in the high slot, requiring 450 pg, and 200 cpu and limited to battleship class ships. The function of the module would be to drag ships up to 11,500,000 kgs, towards the ship initiating the tractor beam. The engine output of target ship will be cut by 45% assuming only this module is acting on it, and they will be pulled in at a rate of 200 m/s. If they turn into the pull, it will act as a speed bonus, and if they turn away it will act as a debuff. The percentage of the 200 m/s presently effecting the ship's forward speed will be a scale of -100% to 100% from 0 degrees difference to 180 degrees difference. Optimal range of the module would be 25km. Tech two variant would be 450 pg and 280 cpu as well as a range of 27km. Multiple modules can be stacked so long as they originate from the same ship.

The tech one ship class would be Tugboats, battle cruiser class but with the capability of using large tractor beams with a 25% fitting bonus. Cargo capacity would generally be about 200 m3 larger than usual, and they will usually have drone damage bonuses and large drone bays, their primary bonus though will be 5% per level to tractor beam range. On average they should have five high slots, and depending on their races primary tanking skills about six slots for their main tank with about three for the last row. Generally speaking, their shields and armor should be above average for BCs, but with few turret or missile slots. Movement should also be in the 100 m/s range, with Minmatar being the fastest at 135 m/s.

The tech two Tugboat, Fleet Tug, has almost the same bonuses as their tech one brethren as well as a 5% bonus to shield or armor resists per level. The natural resists should allow players to get 55% for their weakest resist, 65% for the second weakest, 70% for the second strongest and 74% for the strongest as base resist values. Cargo capacity is the same as a tech one tug before any bonuses. They should have 10% more shields and armor, and 20% more PG and CPU. 1 more high slot, and an average of 3 additional slots split between mid and low depending on racial focus. The replacement of the original role bonus to fitting, they gain the role bonus of being able to tug capital ships at an 85% reduction to the pull rate.

The only skills I would add would be (racial) Fleet Tug for the ship, and Fine Tractor Beam Calibration for a 5% bonus to large tractor beam capacitor usage.

All told, this would require one additional physics calculation, twenty five new items and two new skills. The primary beneficiaries are corporations who have already mastered most of fleet combat and are looking for some additional tactical diversity. If tech one tugboats could be manufactured and sold for under a hundred million, they would make ideal ships for cleaning up missions or even running level 3 and early level 4 missions.

PS. Take all hard numbers with a grain of salt. I never write down exact numbers in a first draft design spec, since only play testing can get you to the point where fine tuning is possible.This month's topic comes to us from me, Ga'len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility. He asks: "What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe? Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a 'nerf this, boost my game play' post like we see on the EVE forums."

Ga'len my friend, you are one bright star in the New Eden universe! But seriously, game mechanics? Who do you think I am, Hilmar? Listen, before I wreck havoc to the inner workings of EVE, I'll let game design and game mechanics to the Intertubes Gnomes and stick to what I know! Socializing of course!

When I'm not blogging or making a podcast (been a long time) about EVE, I'm either running missions, transporting ore from a mining operations back to a station or a Phoenix Labs POS, or mostly likely docked at a station, chatting in 4 or 5 different in-game channels! I've always thought that there was a more entertaining way to chat with a few corp mates while docked, waiting for a corp ops to start, or at the end of a long mining session.

Back at Fanfest 2008, we had the chance to see the development of mini-games during the Walking-in-Station demo. Well actually, we've only had the chance to see one of these games, but it struck a cord. Flash forward a few months, and we still don't have WiS, but why couldn't we have those mini-games?

Why couldn't I play with a mate in another station, 30 jumps away? The opportunity exists to create mini-games that could be as addictive as SecWars, or Defense Grid for that matter. And I'm sure that we could come-up with 10 of these together quite easily. You could play for fun, for ISKs, for modules, ships, or whatever you want to gamble. We could have tournaments, just like we have the Alliance Tournament! Or we could simply have a one-on-one! Oh the possibilities!!

20.5.09

I like to prototype underlying ideas in the fashion of a board game or tabletop game. In this case, I'm just getting down some thoughts for gossamer so I'll remember them when I have a more functional engine to plug them into.

16.5.09

There are times I feel like I'm getting middle aged by EVE standards. I'm too young to have walked uphill in the snow both ways to work everyday, but too old for this newfangled Epic Mission Arc and Wormhole Space business. Still it gave me a chance to learn the hard way just how easy it can be to make yourself a half-way decent living in EVE just running missions in high-sec.

First of all, it's not hard as many new players think to get into a decent battle cruiser and get out there running level 3s. On the other hand, it's not as straightforward as the player about to buy their very first battle cruiser tends to think either. You'll need engineering, electronics and mechanic all to V. Targeting to at least four, long range targeting to at least four, drones to V and drone interfacing to IV. For the most part those skills aren't listed in the ship's prerequisites, but each of them is going to be vital to your survival on missions. And no matter how you tank, tactical shield and tactical armor manipulation are both needed to at least IV better V to make sure that your armor really protects that hull of yours, and the shield really works as a straight up buffer before your armor.

A passive shield tank will need shield upgrades IV, as well as all the shield compensation skills to IV, and active shield tank will need shield boosters IV. Armor needs hull upgrades IV, armor repair IV (quick note, don't even worry about armor repair V until you already have a cap stable ship, the decrease in cycle time will make it hit your cap harder as well) and armor compensation to 3, possibly 4 in case you want to fit an EANM.

Finally to get into the ship itself you really just need spaceship command IV, racial frigate IV, racial cruiser III, and then you'll want the battle cruiser skill itself up to IV. You'll also need whatever weapons your race favors up into the med IV range, as well as any gunnery, missile or drone bonuses you can pile on after wards.

I'm sure this all sounds like a lot, and even with a couple levels of cybernetics and friendly corp mates to get you into +3s this is going to take about 40+ days from a new character, though not taking into account the early training bonus. However, most of that time you'll be spending in a cruiser doing level 2s, or with a corp mate assisting them on missions. However, with these skills you'll become a self-sufficient isk producer, and begin to have brand new opportunities in the EVE landscape open for you.

I tend to think of certain ships as isk gates, and the battle cruiser is one of the big ones in high sec. So if you need something to aim for, it's probably your next big leap forward in the EVE universe.

15.5.09

I've got a large portion of what I already had done converted to XNA at this point. Need to get inertia worked in to finalize the flight model and I'll be golden. The graphics are much more stable, I don't experience tearing at all while I'm play testing my current build. There is a lot left to work on, everything from planets, to UI, to weapons, to various other graphics so I'm hardly even scratching the surface at the moment.

Unfortunately I've had some thoughts this week that I just haven't been able to get out in post form. So I'm just going to start jotting down thoughts and ideas from the week. We'll see if any of these spark some great moment of insight and get me writing at length.

The first is body language in games. What I'm really referring to here is player body language from the game's point of view, as in where is the player, where are they facing, and what are they doing. This began with the thought of adding a wider trigger zone for players approaching a trigger while facing it, this would hopefully decrease the awkwardness for some players that being dragged into a scripted event tends to have.

My next thought was of when I'd play interactive fiction games, sometimes I'd get to the point of knowing roughly how to solve a problem, but having to guess at the verb. If this went on to long, I'd start talking to the interpreter, and not particularly being very nice about it. In this case, I was actually giving the author direct input, but there was nothing to catch that input, nothing to tell that I was obviously agitated. What if even in today's fist person and third person games there were certain behaviors common to frustrated players, to confused players, to bored players, to happy players. It would take extensive play testing, but what if we could build our games to have a more dynamic reaction to the way our players are trying to tell us they perceive them?

Switching gears, I often hear about how people will feel more satisfied with the sound of contact when striking something in WoW over some other games, WAR specifically comes to mind. While playing Mount and Blade I felt this effect as well, but it also pointed out that to me, at least, the effect needs a second layer, I also need to see that my strike was effective. When I say effective I don't mean a chip off the health bar, I mean opponents being staggered and often dieing within a couple hits. It's probably much the same reason I prefer Counterstrike's weapons over basic Half-Life weapons, that feeling of deadliness. Of course, this also ties into the fact that I find a useful historically modeled axe much more beautiful than any of the wicked looking but honestly not very damaging axes of many MMOs.

On top of all this, I've been thinking about fleets in this current space game I'm working on. Escape Velocity allowed you to hire escorts but not have a fleet afield, X series allowed fleets a field but were kind of hidden and had a rather steep learning curve, EVE allows fleets but their all players so it doesn't matter. My thought was that perhaps I could borrow the overview from Sins of a Solar Empire and use a similar process for the player to manage their own fleets. This would mean their fleets would be pretty much always there in view and would be largely interacted with through right clicking and context menus.

11.5.09

I haven't really been writing here much over the past week or so. I intend to make up for that here in a bit.

I picked up Mount and Blade for $7.50, really enjoying it actually. Recently, I rolled up a second character to specialize more in charisma. It's incredibly fun to me that I'm not a complete gimp in combat since I still have all the real skills I built up while playing my first character. I do a fair amount less damage than my first character, especially in archery, so I've decided to specialize more in the lance which is really freaking hard to use but it can do incredible damage if you use it well.

4.5.09

3.5.09

I'd decided to switch to XNA to get in and mess around with my draw code more to fix that tearing issue I was having in Torque. One minor thing I forgot though was that unlike Torque, where I just tweaked someone's geometry war clone script to get it moving how I wanted, in XNA I was going to have to go all the way back to making ship classes with at least basic Newtonian physics as their guiding principles.

Good news is this is familiar ground for me. Bad news is that was a bit of a long time ago, so I'm not entirely sure I still know what I'm doing. Ahh well, c'est la vie.